Monthly Archives: July 2013

Not the first time, and not the last time, that a deaf organizationwould lose money because of a thief that is the treasurer or officer.A state association of the deaf recently announced it has lost a lot ofmoney because of the theft. The association said services of an attorneyand a financial professional have been hired. DeafDigest is not mentioningthe identity of the thief nor of the state association, so as to preventembarrassment. But the sad thing is – it will happen again and again!

— Internet group supports E-Bay, says no ADA for deaf

eBay has required Melissa Earll, a deaf trader, to confirm heridentity on telephone. She sued on basis of discrimination butlost the case. She appealed the case with the 9th Circuit Courtof Appeals. The Internet Trade Group made a friend-of-the-court briefargument claiming ADA regulations, if strictly enforced, wouldruin them! This is may not be good news for deaf individuals thatwant to make a living on the internet.

— a new country singer works with a deaf filmmaker

Tim Sweeney, a new country singer, is working with Jules Dameron,a deaf filmmaker and a former Deaflympics participant on includingASL signs into his future country songs. While Tim is new to the countryscene, he is interested in ASL because his son is disabled (Down syndromeand autistic).

Many fighters announce their retirement yet come back to fight again.Matt Hamill is no different; he will fight against Thiago Silvaon October 9th in Brazil in his second comeback fight. How tough isThiago? Almost everyone thinks Thiago will win, but Matt is not afraidof anyone!

— confusion over open captions and closed captions

Many people are still confused between open captions and closedcaptions. Yes, both give us captions but both are different. Withopen captions, we do not need special glasses. With closed captionswe require special glasses. Which is preferable? Hearing people hateopen captions. We, the deaf, prefer open captions, not closed captions.Still, closed captions are better than no captions!

— a way for deaf club to raise money

Little Rock Association of the Deaf has been around for many years,and is well known in the Arkansas deaf community – but like with manyother deaf clubs, it has been difficult to raise funds for cluboperations. The club owns a 5 a.m. liquor license, and wants torent it out to a hearing club. A hearing is scheduled, and ifsuccessful, the deaf club should see money coming in.

Parul Gupta won the national India deaf women’s tennis championship,qualifying her for the Deaflympics. India would not allow her togo to Deaflympics. Her angry father filed a lawsuit. The Delhi HighCourt agreed with her, and allowed her to compete! Why did India sayno? India says no money to send her to Deaflympics!

— testing athletes’ deafness

over 3,000 deaf athletes are now at the Deaflympics. They must havea hearing loss of 55dB or higher in the better ear. Do some athletescheat on their deafness? Yes, some do. There is a group of professionalaudiologists that will randomnly test five percent of these athletes(around 150 of them) for their deafness. When asked to be tested, theseathletes cannot avoid or run away or hide from audiologists!

— why no captions on one TV news program?

In Tulsa, a TV news program was not captioned. Why?A bad storm wrecked the captioning equipment. This is whatthe TV station manager told the deaf community. The TVpeople have been trying to fix the captioning equipment butit takes some time.

Jaromir Ruda, former Slovak Deaflympics chairperson, was sentencedto 13 years in prison. His crime? Pocketing $2.1 million dollars,that was supposed to be used for 2008 Deaflympics, hosted by hisSlovak nation. Because the funds were missing, the Deaflympicswas cancelled – a black mark in the history of Deaf Sports.

Currently Row 44, our inflight wi-fi provider, is working with the streamingprovider to find a solution to be able to caption movies and TV. Due to aglitch, we are not yet there in providing captioning but hope to be able tohave it enabled soon

Glitch? DeafDigest does not believe Southwest Airlines

— Kentucky School for the Deaf owes Centre College $6,000

Someone from Kentucky School for the Deaf (KSD) checked out a book
from the Centre College library in 1828. The book was never returned.
Just this week someone found that book on the deaf school campus.
It was returned to the libary. The fine for the overdue book is $6.000.
Will KSD pay for it? Probably not because Centre College will probably
laugh it off.

a deaf intern from Gallaudet; a long time volunteer archivst; the street sign where the school is located

— the deaf of France

The deaf of France are the same as the deaf of USA! Only differencesbetween us are different languages, different sign languages, anddifferent cultures. Yet we share same interests and share same worriesand problems.